MoJo Author Feeds: Bruce Falconer | Mother Joneshttp://www.motherjones.com/rss/authors/969
http://www.motherjones.com/files/motherjonesLogo_google_206X40.pngMother Jones logohttp://www.motherjones.com
enNo Accounting for Wastehttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/no-accounting-waste
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p><em>For the extended version of this article, read "</em><a href="/politics/2009/07/afghanistan-oversight-awol"><em>Afghanistan: Oversight AWOL?</em></a><em>"</em></p>
<p>DURING HIS fourth trip to Afghanistan, in May, Arnold Fields, the retired Marine general who serves as the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, or SIGAR (pronounced "cigar"), noticed a pattern. Each Afghan official he met gave the impression of being the only honest man in the country. "At least that's how they perceive themselves," he told me after his return. "Obviously that might not be the case."</p>
<p>It's not surprising that Fields can't figure out whom to trust. Afghanistan places fifth in <a href="http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/cpi2008/cpi_2008_table">Transparency International's annual ranking</a> of the world's most corrupt nations. (Iraq is tied for second.) Yet Fields, who's in charge of ensuring that taxpayers' dollars don't end up lining the pockets of swindlers and opportunists, heads an office that's ill equipped to deal with this level of graft. Which raises the question of just how serious Washington is about preventing Afghanistan from becoming a money pit like Iraq, where billions in reconstruction funds have gone missing.</p></body></html>
<p style="font-size: 1.083em;"><a href="/politics/2009/09/no-accounting-waste"><strong><em>Continue Reading &raquo;</em></strong></a></p>PoliticsAfghanistanMilitaryTop StoriesWed, 19 Aug 2009 21:03:08 +0000Bruce Falconer26093 at http://www.motherjones.comDelayed Nuclear Reactionhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/delayed-nuclear-reaction
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>The scenario is a Hollywood staple: Terrorists infiltrate a poorly guarded nuclear weapons facility, capture the bomb, and hold the world hostage to their diabolical demands. But that could only happen in the movies, right? Unfortunately, no. Nearly eight years after 9/11, nuclear specialists are only just starting to coordinate industry-wide practices to keep the materials used to make doomsday weapons from falling into terrorist hands.</p>
<p>The nuclear industry has long collaborated on safety issues, such as preventing reactors from exploding. But even as the threat of terrorism has grown, security has remained an ad hoc affair, with each individual facility or country left more or less to its own devices. It was only last September that a Vienna-based nongovernmental organization called the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) began bringing nuclear security specialists together to formulate procedures to prevent violent extremists from obtaining the key ingredient in nuclear bombs.&nbsp;</p></body></html>
<p style="font-size: 1.083em;"><a href="/politics/2009/07/delayed-nuclear-reaction"><strong><em>Continue Reading &raquo;</em></strong></a></p>PoliticsInternationalTop StoriesMon, 20 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000Bruce Falconer25446 at http://www.motherjones.comAfghanistan: Oversight AWOL?http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/afghanistan-oversight-awol
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>After the legendary corruption of the Iraq occupation&mdash;private contractors fashioning spurs for their cowboy boots from stolen Iraqi gold, vanishing pallets of shrink-wrapped cash&mdash;you'd think the US government would be keeping an extra-close watch on the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. But you'd be wrong. Who says so? The guy in charge of rooting out corruption. Even as the Obama administration steps up spending in Afghanistan, it's shortchanging the government auditors responsible for ensuring that taxpayer dollars don't wind up in the pockets of swindlers and opportunists.</p>
<p>Afghanistan already places fifth in Transparency International's annual ranking of the most corrupt nations in the world. The US plans to spend nearly $14 billion there over the next financial year on military operations and reconstruction projects, up from about $11 billion this year. Yet Arnold Fields, the official charged with keeping track of this money&mdash;as well as foreign investment in US-sponsored programs&mdash;says in an interview with <i>Mother Jones </i>that he lacks the tools for the job.</p></body></html>
<p style="font-size: 1.083em;"><a href="/politics/2009/07/afghanistan-oversight-awol"><strong><em>Continue Reading &raquo;</em></strong></a></p>PoliticsAfghanistanMilitaryTop StoriesThu, 16 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000Bruce Falconer25382 at http://www.motherjones.comConspiracy Watch: The CIA's Bad Flashbackhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/07/conspiracy-watch-cias-bad-flashback
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p><span class="bold_red">THE CONSPIRACY:</span> Between 1950 and 1975, the government conducted a series of risky top-secret experiments on American soldiers. The <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/cias-open-secrets">CIA</a> and the military are thought to have tested as many as 400 chemical and biological substances including VX nerve agent, mustard gas, sarin, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/harry-reid-gold-member?page=3">cyanide</a>, LSD, and PCP on human guinea pigs&mdash;with frightening results.</p>
<p><span class="bold_red">THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS:</span> Six former GIs recently filed suit against the CIA and Pentagon, claiming they've been denied awards and health benefits promised to them when they volunteered for classified tests at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. Now suffering from unexplained ailments, the men are also demanding full disclosure of what exactly was done to them. One recalls that he was given a powerful hallucinogen and "thought he was 3 feet tall, saw animals on the walls, thought he was being pursued by a 6-foot-tall white rabbit, heard people calling his name, thought that all his freckles were bugs under his skin, and used a razor to try to cut these bugs out." If the suit, the largest of its kind, succeeds, it could win compensation for other test subjects&mdash;at least those who know they were experimented on.</p>
<p><span class="bold_red">MEANWHILE, BACK ON EARTH:</span> The ex-soldiers aren't hallucinating. The Army's secret testing program and a CIA mind-control project (known as MKULTRA) were exposed in the mid-'70s. In 1994, the General Accounting Office confirmed that the agency had tested "nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psychochemicals, and irritants" on <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2008/07/some-surprising-new-findings-gis-ptsd-and-crime">GIs</a>. Yet what really happened may never be known: Many of the records from these clandestine tests have been destroyed.</p>
<p class="mojo_red">Kookiness Rating: A Conspiracy Watch first&mdash;zero tinfoil hats!</p></body></html>
PoliticsdrugsCIAMon, 13 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000Bruce Falconer24590 at http://www.motherjones.comUS Military, Private Contractors Trampled Babylon, Says Reporthttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/07/us-military-private-contractors-trampled-babylon-says-reportun
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>Attention has shifted to Afghanistan, but the results of the (yes, still ongoing) American presence in Iraq continue to reveal themselves. Among them is a report (<a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001831/183134e.pdf">PDF</a>) released Thursday by <a href="http://www.unesco.org/">UNESCO</a>, alleging that American soldiers and private contractors sullied one of the world's richest archeological sites after the 2003 invasion. The site has long suffered from plunderers and mismanagement, but the American operation seems to have only worsened things. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon">Hanging Gardens of Babylon</a>, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, became the location for "<a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/iraq-alpha.htm">Camp Alpha</a>." The impact of thousands of soldiers and their heavy equipment on the historic site caused "a considerable amount of damage," said the British Museum's John Curtis, after the report was released to the press in Paris. &nbsp;</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hYZIpEAwUtMB_AcIgjEnAwm6vGigD99B28QG0">AP</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">American troops and contractors, notably from KBR &mdash; then a Halliburton subsidiary &mdash; dug trenches several hundred yards (meters) long through the ruins, bulldozed hilltops, and drove heavy military vehicles over the fragile paving of once-sacred procession paths, according to a report presented Thursday at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris...</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">UNESCO officials stressed that the damage didn't begin with the U.S. military or fully end after it left. Many of Babylon's most famous artifacts were ripped off walls by European archaeologists during the 19th century and remain on display at the Louvre and Pergamon Museums in Paris and Berlin.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein also restored or distorted some of the ruins so badly that it prevented UNESCO from listing Babylon as a World Heritage site in the past, UNESCO officials said.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Looting and black-market trading has continued on a large scale since the site was handed back to Iraqis, they added.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">The scale of the damage means it is too early to assess how much money will be needed to restore and fully protect the site, said Curtis and the other experts who prepared the UNESCO report, which caps five years of investigation and multiple findings by Iraqi and international academics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p></body></html>
MoJoInternationalIraqMilitaryFri, 10 Jul 2009 15:08:40 +0000Bruce Falconer25258 at http://www.motherjones.comRussian Battle Tanks Tracked to South Sudanhttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/07/russian-battle-tanks-tracked-south-sudan
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>Remember those <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2008/09/somali-pirates-capture-shipment-russian-tanks">33 Russian battle tanks</a> discovered last September aboard a Ukrainian ship seajacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia? The ship and the crew of the <em>MV Faina</em> were ultimately ransomed and released, but their load of weaponry continued on its way to Kenyan port of Mombasa amid suspicions that its cargo was ultimately bound for South Sudan. Thanks to <em>Jane's</em> researchers, we now know this to be true. Studying commercial satellite photographs, analysts Lauren Gelfand and Allison Puccioni&nbsp;<a href="http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdw/jdw090707_1_n.shtml">tracked the tanks</a> to their current location in, yes, South Sudan. Just what the region needs: more ways for people to kill other people. The bulk of the <em>Jane's</em> article is for subscribers only, but you can find a good summary at <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/satellite-uncovers-pirate-weapons-haul/">Danger Room</a>.&nbsp;</p></body></html>
MoJoForeign PolicyInternationalMilitaryTue, 07 Jul 2009 18:19:46 +0000Bruce Falconer25178 at http://www.motherjones.comAlec Baldwin For Congress?http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/07/alec-baldwin-congress
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>Alec Baldwin: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000285/">leading man</a>, <a href="http://www.nbc.com/30_Rock/bios/alec-baldwin.shtml">comic genius</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcVfHnhaalY">bad dad</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin">ultra-liberal pontificator</a>, ... member of Congress? Yep, the troubled Hollywood actor, enjoying a resurgence thanks to the popularity of NBC's <em>30 Rock</em>, tells <em>Playboy</em>&nbsp;that he's <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6659422.ece">looking to join</a> the party on Capitol Hill in 2012, assuming a suitable seat becomes available. "The desire is there, that&rsquo;s one component,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The other component is opportunity."&nbsp;</p>
<p>From the actor's perspective, the timing is perfect. His current contract with NBC expires in 2012, just when his new gig would kick in. Celebrities-turned-politicians are a fixture in American politics:&nbsp;Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and, most recently, Al Franken, to name a few. But is Baldwin&nbsp;worried that he'll be perceived as just another Hollywood celebrity trading his fame for political power? Nope. He's particularly confident when comparing himself with California's governor. "His only credentials are that he ran a fitness program under some bygone president," Baldwin says. "I'm (Alexis) de Toqueville compared to Schwarzenegger."</p>
<p>Which state would Baldwin most like to represent? Not California. "Who wants to live in California?" he joked. Connecticut meets his approval, particularly if he can face off against Joe Lieberman. But New York seems to be his most coveted spot--if there's a spot open in 2012, that is. "People get sick, die. They're offered lucrative deals and want to cash in and make money for their retirement. People misstep. Unfortunately, an opportunity for me may mean bad things for someone else."</p></body></html>
MoJoCongressElectionsTue, 07 Jul 2009 16:43:38 +0000Bruce Falconer25166 at http://www.motherjones.comMichael Scheuer Vying For a Role on 24?http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/07/michael-scheuer-vying-role-24
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>Getting exercised over the mind-numbing stupidity exhibited each day on the cable news networks is easily avoided. Just turn them off. Read a book. Go for a walk. Do something... anything else. But occasionally they're worth watching (in very small doses), if only for their grim comedic value. Tuesday's <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/">Glenn Beck</a> show on Fox News is a case in point. The conservative blowhard spoke with&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Scheuer">Michael Scheuer</a>, former chief of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, about Obama's <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0701/p99s01-duts.html">proposed plan</a> to send 1,500 National Guardsman to the US-Mexico border to combat drug smuggling. But the conversation quickly went off course, ultimately ranging from Scheuer's views on gun control (Democrats "want guns only in the hands of the government") to his aggrieved sense of populism. Scheuer, a highly educated guy himself and one who made a career in the elite echelon of the country's intelligence service, derided how the federal government is run by elitists who care nothing for the common man. "Now the minority--those folks who go to Harvard and Yale and the prestigious universities who think they know everything and who want the government to control everything--are in power. The majority of Americans... are generally neglected in terms of security by the minority that runs this government." Music to the ears of Scheuer's Fox audience.</p>
<p>But Scheuer didn't stop there. When Beck brought up Obama's strategy against Al Qaeda, the former CIA man launched into a diatribe you'd expect from Jon Voight's crazy-patriot character on 24, not from America's former chief Bin Laden hunter. The transcript speaks for itself:</p></body></html>
<p style="font-size: 1.083em;"><a href="/mojo/2009/07/michael-scheuer-vying-role-24"><strong><em>Continue Reading &raquo;</em></strong></a></p>MoJoAfghanistanForeign PolicyInternationalMilitaryWed, 01 Jul 2009 14:40:52 +0000Bruce Falconer25060 at http://www.motherjones.comTaliban Consolidating Its Grip on Afghanistan?http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/06/taliban-consolidating-grip-afghanistan
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p>The Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan has so far been concentrated in the south and east of the country, but according to a <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&amp;id=23331">new report</a>, they could emerge as a national insurgency within two years. Gilles Dorronsoro, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writes that the Taliban's rapid expansion is the result of its own operational strengths, both in terms of strong leadership and effective propaganda, combined with the West's continued underestimation of its powers. With increasing numbers of US troops bound for Afghanistan, Dorronsoro recommends that they be posted to areas in which the Taliban have yet to concentrate in order to prevent these regions from falling victim to insurgents. "If the Coalition reinforced the Afghan police and military in the North," he says, "the insurgents could be stopped relatively easily."</p>
<p>From a press release describing Dorronsoro's <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&amp;id=23331">report</a>:</p></body></html>
<p style="font-size: 1.083em;"><a href="/mojo/2009/06/taliban-consolidating-grip-afghanistan"><strong><em>Continue Reading &raquo;</em></strong></a></p>MoJoAfghanistanForeign PolicyInternationalTue, 30 Jun 2009 19:48:46 +0000Bruce Falconer25045 at http://www.motherjones.com"A Dark Year" For Democracy in Russia, Report Concludeshttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/06/dark-year-democracy-russia-says-report
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<html><body><p><a href="http://www.freedomhouse.org/">Freedom House</a>, a Washington-based NGO that monitors political rights and civil liberties worldwide, released its "<a href="http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&amp;release=1018">Nations In Transit</a>" report Tuesday, an annual assessment of Eastern European and former Soviet states' transition to democracy. The report, first released in 1995, has always been something of a downer. And this year's incarnation is on exception. Two thirds (18 of 29) nations evaluated were found to be backsliding from democratic reform.</p>
<p>"2008 was a dark year for democracy in the region, in particular in the former Soviet states," said Vladimir Shkolnikov, who oversaw the report. "With economic conditions worsening, the region is likely to see authoritarians resort to greater repression, rather than adopt needed reforms." Indeed, for the first time, Russia was determined to be "a consolidated authoritarian regime," due to its persistent problems with corruption, press censorship, and rigged courts, not to mention last year's highly suspect presidential election in which Putin acolyte, Dmitry Medvedev, came out on top. Similar authoritarian trends also appeared in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Georgia.&nbsp;</p></body></html>
MoJoCivil LibertiesInternationalTue, 30 Jun 2009 16:21:47 +0000Bruce Falconer25032 at http://www.motherjones.com